HAXLR8R co-founder on what hardware trends to expect in 2014

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HAXLR8R, the hardware-focused startup accelerator based between
San Francisco and Shenzhen, China, hosted its third demo day last
November, to resounding success - something the HAXLR8R team and
their companies are seeing more of these days. Before demo day, two
companies in the latest graduating class,
PetCube and
Everpurse, had already closed some seed funding and raised
non-dilutive capital online via Kickstarter, founders Sean
O’Sullivan and Cyril Ebersweiler toldThe Wall Street Journal.

Further, as of the close of its Kickstarter campaign yesterday, Lebanon's
Roadie Tuner, a member of the accelerator's
class of 2013, raised its original goal of $60,000 USD almost three
times over. Palette, another 2013 HAXLR8R company, has
raised nearly 1.5 times its original $100,000 CAD goal, and Vigo
has 27 more days to reach its $50,000 USD goal (it's already raised
$34,000). (Disclosure: Wamda CEO Habib Haddad is a mentor in the
HAXLR8R program.)

Wamda quizzed Ebersweiler recently about the incredible success
HAXLR8R has enjoyed in its short life, trends he’s seeing in the
gadgetry people are interested in, and what life is like for
entrepreneurs working out of Shenzhen, China.

After your successful third round (not to mention your
first and second), what trends are you seeing in how people want to
invest and what they want to buy?

On the consumer side, there is still a huge appetite for
novelties as a lot of people are being transformed into early
adopters once they get a smartphone. Crowdfunding campaigns are
still popular but we observe some kind of 'fatigue' as everyone is
getting a better understanding about the risks involved, or delays
in getting their products. This leads some consumers to wait,
instead of helping to get those products to market.

On the investor side, there is certainly a stronger appetite
than in the past, but a lot of the rounds are happening 'after the
battle' – that is to say the funding goes to companies which
already have more than a million dollars in revenue (through
campaigns or not). When things are more risky or not entirely
proven, investors are still sitting on the fence and letting
entrepreneurs traverse the 'bridge of death' that awaits hardware
startups post crowdfunding campaigns [on their own].

What trends in gadgetry are you seeing?

2013 was definitely the year of the wearables and activity
trackers of all kinds, but in reality there are only a few on the
market at the moment. The second iterations on this kind of
hardware will be interesting to watch as they will benefit from
consumer input.

In 2014 we will hear more about Head Mounted Displays and their
correlative Augmented Reality / Virtual Reality, then ways to
interact with them (through gesture e.g.), as well as more robots,
which are benefiting from the trends and are getting cheaper by the
day. Later on we'll see a chunk of startups focus on B2B, not
unlike what we saw in mobile.

Tell us about some of your most exciting new body
monitoring gadgets.

I'm impressed with the Fitbit Force, which is a simple gadget
but really well crafted. I'm excited about the sleep monitoring
space, the brain activity space (Melon for example) and the devices
which will be able to tell us more about our general fitness status
(Vigo is a shot at that with its 'fuel gauge').

HAXLR8R has had a fascinating - and lucrative -
relationship with Kickstarter and its audience. Tell us a little
about it, and where you see this relationship heading in
2014.

When we are doing our 'job' correctly, we are the ideal
no-headache partner for Kickstarter. But overall I think they've
been very supportive to everyone, and the same goes for Indiegogo
and others I'm sure. We are platform and launch agnostic: startups
decide what they want to do and where. It's their company. Our goal
is to make sure they are successful no matter what.

Has it been difficult to convince entrepreneurs to come
to China? Surely this has changed as HAXLR8R has seen more and more
success; how would you characterize the shift?

It's never been really hard to convince those who applied to
come over: they were already kinda nuts. They understand what we
are doing, and why building
your own supply chain matters, why prototyping in Shenzhen is
awesome, or why experiential learning is useful.

One thing that is certain: it used to be a whole lot harder to
evolve in China. The first HAXLR8R batch had it rough, but helped
us to identify something essential: people are not here on a
culture trip, they are here to build a product in a record time. So
we've done everything we could to smooth the ride, while getting
everyone ready to rock. It used to take us more than a month to get
to the level where entrepreneurs would feel comfortable, and I
think we've nailed the process so much that after ten days people
are running around, fearless.

What kind of cultural divides have the HAXLR8R team as
well as its entrepreneurs experienced given that most of these
people aren't from Shezhen? What steps has HAXLR8R made to ease the
process of acculturation? Have the cultural differences led to any
surprising outcomes?

Shenzhen is rather forgiving since, after all, tens of thousands
of foreigners have come over the last 20 years to do business here.
So you'll find whatever you need as a foreigner, and more. We are
doing a lot from the get go, like setting up bank accounts, finding
accommodation, recommending places to eat and have fun, having team
building and sports events... The idea is that the day they arrive,
they find a home (since we provide the office space and workshop
for free), and 'feel' home.

Overall, the tide is rising and while the teams will have to
fight for more attention and backers' dollars, it's truly amazing
to watch products making us better humans.

In addition to HAXLR8R, Wamda loves hardware: the Wamda Fund
has invested in Instabeat, Lebanon's own wearable, waterproof
heartrate monitor. CEO Habib Haddad invites those interested to
contact him regarding his mentorship duties with HAXLR8R. He can be
reached at habib@wamda.com.